How to enable native call recording on the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL

One feature that many users have been asking for on Windows Phone is the ability to record phone calls. While there are legal issues varying from state to state the real reason has always been a technical one.
Both the OS and hardware need to be able to support recording a two-way conversation as there need to be API accessible microphones and the ability to intercept the audio coming out the ear piece.

Windows 10 Mobile brings this feature natively to the OS although not all phones can do it. Whether that is because of firmware or hardware, it is not yet known. What is known is that the new Microsoft Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL can both have this feature enabled. However, it is important to note that it is not configured by default, so you need to do that before anything else.

Here is how to get it working. Just follow our written tutorial or watch our video hands-on.

Enable call recording – Lumia 950 & Lumia 950 XL

1. Settings

Go to Settings > System > Phone

2. Manage recorders

Scroll down to the bottom of the Phone settings and from the menu selector 'Choose the app you want to use to manage recorded phone calls.'

3. Voice Recorder

As of now, there are no third party apps that handle this feature. However, you can choose the native Voice Recorder app from the menu

That's it!

How to use

Using the call recording feature is very simple. Whenever you are on a call, your on-screen menu now has an extra option to Record found in the upper left area. Simply tap this button to initiate two-way call recording.

It does not matter if you call someone or someone calls you. From our testing, there is no audible beeping noise either notifying the other party that call recording has been initiated.

Listening to recorded calls

To go back and listen to call you recorded is very simple. Once the feature was enabled as outlined above you get a new menu option under the Phone app called Recorded Calls. Tapping this menu item brings up the native Voice Recorder app with the recorded call history. Simply tapping one of the logs will play the recorded call.

The audio call is recorded in MP4 format at a 174 bitrate , which should keep them at an adequate size. You can listen to a short sample above via our SoundCloud embed.

Other options include:

Ability to flag (demarcate) important points in the call timeline

Share – Using the universal Share picker you can send the audio clip to Messaging, Outlook Mail, Bluetooth, OneDrive, WhatsApp and more

Trim- Using the editing tools you can trim the file to just the pertinent part you want

Delete

Contact information

Open file location: Choosing this option opens the file in File Explorer. The directory structure for recorded calls is always This Device > Recorded Calls, although you could have these stored on the micro SD card under Storage.

Wrapping things up

All in all native call recording on the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL is pretty straightforward once you get past the initial step of having to enable the feature. Once turned on, it is just another option on the call menu. You cannot, of course, have it set to auto-record every call, which could theoretically take up a lot of space if you forgot.

The quality of the recorded conversation is decent with the other party being slightly more quiet than our voice. Still, the recording is audible and depending on the connection and quality of their microphone is more than usable for record keeping.

It is finally nice to see native call recording come to Windows 10 Mobile. It should be obvious how such a feature leverages all the native apps to handle fluidly the feature. From Phone to Voice Recorder to File Explorer all of these apps are involved. It will be interesting to see if other third-party apps take advantage of the option as clearly Microsoft leaves it as a user choice.

Reader comments

How to enable native call recording on the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL

I have lumia 535 and just update it to win 10 build 10586.29 but cannot see the option to choose app to manage recorded calls under system &gt; phone settings . Do we have any other apps that have this feature enabled in windows 10 mobile??

This is GREAT! I miss being able to record phone calls since... I can't remember which phones I had that did it, but it was super useful! Perfect for when you don't have a pen and pad available and particularly useful for bookies (I'm not a bookie). This should be an advertised feature.

Just because the feature isn't available on other phone YET doesn't meant it'll never be available. The feature is part of a yet unreleased update. Microsoft doesn't always release all features to insider builds.

Nice feature. But there should be an option to record every call. Then the phone should only keep the last ten calls or so in storage, with an option to permanently save the file if the user tells it to.

And even if we assume that there is a hardware that is required for recording a call which is missing in our lumias, does that mean MS or Nokia dint think of call recording feature in their future updates?

Mean if we need very small feature (ex- call recording , USB OTG) in windows phone we need to buy a high price lumia 950/XL !!!
Mean same hardware running android device that support call recording and USB OTG but windows phone can not do it why? Our other lumia running fake hardware's ?
i really big hope to windows 10 to fix our problem/limitations but i disappointed with windows. Now I thinking to buy a new android phone and switch to android.

I think at least here in the US recording the audio is fine for personal use, as the person has to answer your call or call you, different than recording random audio of someone in the wild. However, without their consent of the recording I don't think said recording can be used in a court of law. I'm an engineer and talking out of my ear here.

The laws very by state. In many, it is required that any party recording the call must announce their intentions. In others, if one parry states they'll be recording the call, the other is free to do so without announcing it. As in: When you call customer service, they always say they might record the call. In many states, that's legal precedence enough to record the call.

But as always: Look up local laws for yourself, and be cautious when getting legal advice off the internet.

Indeed, the Call UI is really weird and also it looks quite ugly. The call UI from WP8.1 where a large contact photo fills up the UI which looks way much better and give the focus on the person you calling rather than buttons. Even Android and iOS adopted that UI from WP8.1 and now they have beautiful and still functional calling screen. While W10M adopted/inspired the old iOS7 Call UI.

My old Nokia 7190 could do it too. But my 7190 didn't have much else going on during a call like a smartphone does. In any case, like the article notes, you'd want hardware and software working together to make this happen.

Yeah, all I can see is that they just gave it an artificial limitation. All can be done to be available in software, maybe the firmware limitation maybe real but it doesn't make sense to be hardware feature.

The part of Nokia responsible for supporting these phones was bought by Microsoft, the employees became Microsoft employees. And the no-recording thing spanned the entirety of Windows Phone, not just the Nokia phones. Why blame Nokia for something that is clearly Microsofts decision?

Does it work on a Bluetooth or wired headset? That was the biggest drawback with Android recorders I've used. They only worked through the handset, and the callers voice was very low because the secondary external mic near the earpiece was recording the callers voice coming from the earpiece.

I think it could be firmware that Nokia has made for these phones. Since Nokia doesn't technically support these phones, I don't believe we will ever get anything for older Lumia devices (that originally came with WP8)

Im sure its not hardware issue! Because i can add this feature on ALL Android phones! Due to legal issues, it usually wont be added in the OS as it goes to other manufactures. It might be added through firmware update on official release to each phone.